Interesting to hear your thoughts - good review. What worries me about going from a 3 coupe to a 1 coupe is that you don't get all the nice finishing touches that the 3 coupe has... like the orange ambient lighting along the doors and side trim at the back, as well as the rear passenger heating controls. I'll need to pop along to the dealers and have a proper look myself.

I agree it's never going to be a replacement for a three series but for my son it's going to be a step up to BMW ownership. It misses some of the nice things like the rear armrest and ventilation outlets and controls that you get with the three and I'm sures there's more. It did have the interior lights package as standard (SE and M Sport models) though. After all BMW won't want it to detract from sales of threes.